Organizing my Box of Shame

I took a few steps to get better organized today. First I emptied my box of shame where all my finishes from the past have been hiding. I needed to get them organized better so I had a real idea of what I wanted to do with them and what I might need to do just that...

Here they are all laid out and organized by year I finished the stitching...

Let's break it down...

2007 -- 1

2011 -- 1

2013 -- 6

2014 -- 4

2015 -- 9

2016 -- 7

These make up the progress bar for Prior to 2017 on my goals list with 28 things to finish.

2017 -- 10

2 more that I will finish later after the whole set is finished. Which is why the progress bar says 12.

2018 -- 12

1 more that I will finish after the set is finished. Which is why the progress bar says 13. 

So I have 50 things that need finished right now. Mom came over and said Oh Katie these are beautiful. Why have they been just shoved in a box. I said exactly why this FFO challenge was created. They deserve to be out and displayed. You can't remember them hiding in a drawer. In this pile of 50 I do have 13 that I want to take to get framed. The You are Loved piece and the 12 Pine Mountain Snapshots. I want the Snapshot pieces to have 1 frame that I pop the months into to display. My framing store did that with my Cricket Collection Seasons and it works perfect. They deserve it too. I love the whole set so much. So other than those I need to get working on pillows or other fun finishes. 

I've been working on getting a backing fabric stash now that I can actually sew. Here is a few that I had before hand...

I have more here and there just need to gather it into one place. I've also been checking at Walmart. Our Walmart's have these cute fat quarters already cut and they are only 97cents! Here are the ones I've collected so far...

The mermaid piece was too cute so I bought extra rolls of it of course haha.

I also got out my tub of little charms and goodies to see if I had everything I wanted for these tiny finishes that I'm mounting on burlap frames. Here is a glance at the table of goodies to play with...

Can't wait to put these together....Hopefully before the 10th for the next FFG check in. I had everything I wanted just need crafting time. I look forward to doing these. I have the idea in mind just need to create it.

Yesterday while out running errands we did a quick stop at Hobby Lobby. I behaved actually which we all know is really really hard in that store. I did a get some ideas on things I want to do in the future. This is all that followed me home for this time...

The piece of fabric above was a remnant they had pre-cut in a bargain bin for 81cents. Plus I bought 26 floss that were on my shopping list that I was running low on. By the way If you use an Android device have you checked out the Xstitch app? I use it to keep track of my floss. It has an awesome shopping list too for when you are running low. Then when you get to the store you just pull up the list and you know what you need. Fantastic. You can also journal information about projects and things like that. Which ones you have from the designers. It takes a bit to setup but after that it helps so much to keep track of what you have so you don't buy what you don't need. There is so much out there we do need instead.

I definitely need more finishing fabrics now that I seen what I want to make but I'll add to my stash slowly here and there. Plus I need to look around for all the fabric I've hidden from the past I thought I could sew times haha. 

Hey I also figured I would give those of you who love the Ocean in a Bottle an update...

I got the top of the bottle completed last night. LOVE how it is turning out. Today since it's the first of March though I'm going to work on the two monthly sets I'm doing this year. So this will go away. I think after I finish up the two pieces I will get this one back out until it's finished. Then I can take it to frame with my other pieces I have set aside.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We had some plans come up. A close family friend lost her dad. It was peaceful and expected but still losing a parent is hard. We are going to the calling tomorrow and then the funeral Sunday to be there for her.